“In the strangest way, sad songs make me happy,” Stapleton tells Taste of Country. “My wife (Morgane) is the same way. She likes sad songs. … I think I like sad songs because when you sing sad songs or heartbreak songs, everybody’s been there at one point or another. It makes everybody feel less alone if they are in that space. … I feel like those songs have more power than happy songs, sometimes. Not that happy songs don’t have power, but they’re harder to come by."

Stapleton, who released his third album, From A Room: Volume 2, on Dec. 1, also prefers his songs to be released in album format as opposed to singles format, so listeners can fully comprehend his body of work. And though albums may appear to be declining in popularity as the music business evolves, Stapleton believes singles will never fully trump the album format.

“I think if a certain segment of our population as consumers and as creators want to have that (singles) culture we’re gonna have that, but I think there’s always gonna be a set of listeners who want something a little more than that,” he says. “I think if we take care and are mindful to keep creating albums that people actually want to listen to; it falls over on this side. … There’s always gonna be somebody making an album because they’re in love with it in some way, shape or form. I don’t think it will ever go away, personally.”

From A Room: Volume 2 is Stapleton’s second album release of 2017. His CMA Award-winning From A Room: Volume 1 came out in May.